A doctor has told a jury how she used her professional training to try to prevent an alleged sex attack by a stranger.

The doctor said she was inwardly terrified when she was approached by Marian Drute as she walked down Fore Street, Exeter, late at night.

He is alleged to have asked her to have sex with him and then groped her as he tried to bundle her into a car which was parked on the roadside.

A jury at Exeter Crown Court has been told how he offered to take her to a van elsewhere in the city and 'give her a good time' but she resisted, broke free and walked away.

A passing cyclist saw a woman clinging to scaffolding as a man tried to drag her into a car and a resident living opposite also saw the incident, noted the number of Drute's Volvo car, and called the police.

Read More

Today's Top Stories

Marian Drute, aged 25, of Alphington Street, Exeter, denied assault by penetration and attempted kidnap. He says there was consensual hugging but no sexual contact and that he did not try to force the woman into his car.

The doctor, who does not work in Devon and was visiting Exeter on the night of the attack in April, said she had left the Artigiano Cafe in High Street and was walking down Fore Street when a man approached her from behind.

She said he asked if she wanted sex and she realised she was in a potentially dangerous situation. She said she has received specialist training in dealing with difficult patients and had experience of working with them.